Whatever you do…

“Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.”

–Mohandes Gandhi

“The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners–of whom I am the foremost.” 1 Timothy 1:15

The sooner we accept that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners–and count ourselves as first and foremost the recipient of that grace–the better we will be able to see ourselves as loved and thus truly be able to love others. St. Paul recognized his own neediness–his own sin-sickness. Jesus came to bring healing to those who know they are sick. It is not the righteous who need a doctor, says Jesus. I suppose he knew that the righteous are self-assured and living under the delusion that they really don’t have too many problems.

But life has a way of exposing the areas where we are in need of a healing balm. And the healing comes in the very places of emptiness and pain–not through avoidance and denial, but by entering the brokenness, naming the pain, the deceptions, the failures. And we make our confession, along with Paul, that we are sinners. Not, I’m really not THAT bad. We need not try to console ourselves, by comparing ourselves to others, because none of us have been dealt the same hand in life.

And sometimes there is a sense that our lives, what we do, is insignificant. Ghandi reminds us that it is important that we do it anyway. Our work of the day–the work of our hands, our minds. Tending to relationships–speaking words of blessing…bringing words of discipline. We pick up the hoe, the pen, the ledger, the dish rag and we uncover the eternal mystery of communion as we give ourselves fully to the task of the moment. We did it yesterday, last wek, last year. We do it again today. And perhaps again tomorrow. Sometimes there has been a bountiful harvest, a noticeable return on our effort. Other times there is nothing to the naked eye. But to the eye of the soul–there is possibility, hope.

So we pray for strength for today, rest for the night, and hope for tomorrow. That in our labor–in our living and moving, we have our being in God.

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All good and helpful words here. I particularly like the idea of doing what seems relatively insignificant and seeing little or nothing through the naked eye from it, yet living in hope and possibility with reference to it. Good, helpful words needed at least by so many of us including myself.